How to read Turkmen gels, and why a carpet ended up on the national flag.
Along the hoist of the Turkmen flag runs a vertical band carrying five designs. These are gels — carpet medallions — and each belongs to a tribe: Teke, Yomut, Saryk, Chowdur, Arsary. No other country has put an element of a carpet on its national flag.
A gel is not decoration and not an arbitrary figure. It is a fixed sign by which the origin of a carpet is identified. The shape of the medallion, its proportions, what fills it, the colour behind it — all of that states where the carpet was woven as plainly as an accent states where a person is from. Hence the saying that a carpet here is a passport: you read off whose it is.
The colour is almost always built around red, from brick to deep burgundy. The dye traditionally came from madder, pomegranate rind and walnut leaf, and old carpets do not fade over the years so much as darken.
**A carpet in Turkmenistan is not a souvenir.** It goes into a dowry, it covers the floor of a house, it is given at a wedding, and it is spoken of as a thing that will outlive whoever bought it. A Sunday in May is set aside for the carpet holiday.
Ashgabat has a carpet museum holding one of the largest hand-woven carpets in the world — worth going in for the scale alone. And a practical note: taking carpets out of the country is regulated, and older pieces require a permit. If you mean to buy seriously, ask about that before you buy, not at the airport.